Five Ways the Oscars Are Getting Social

These days, it seems that every major event (e.g. SuperBowl, NBA All Star Weekend, Grammy’s) has been getting involved with social media to some extent, and the Oscars – Sunday, March 7th, 8PM EST – are no exception. Coming off of two horrible years, in terms of television viewership (including the worst ever in 2008), the Academy Awards desperately needed to find a way to bring more appeal to the show. Social Media has been their solution. Whether or not the Oscars’ involvement with social media results in increased ratings and other measurable success still remains to be seen. Here are five ways the Academy Awards are trying to drive a strong audience to the 2010 show.

Revamped Site

Oscars.com has a nice, new look. The black, white, and red color scheme, along with the crisp feel give it a modern vibe. Add the ability to sign in with Facebook, Twitter, & MySpace, and you’re getting somewhere! The site offers a variety of features, including an exclusive web video series, behind the scenes looks at the 2010 show, as well as message boards, “Oscar tweets,” and the chance to predict this year’s various winners. By encouraging interaction, the Oscars are attempting to get more people invested in this year’s show, and hoping to convert more site visitors into television viewers.

Facebook.com/TheAcademy

The Oscars have a Facebook fan page for the first time ever, with 83,000 fans and counting. Each day, they’ve been posting status updates with videos and various calls to action, trying to get visitors excited for the show. The fact that they’ve created a Facebook page is pretty cool, but I’d like to see them doing a bit more with it. A custom Welcome tab for non-fans would have been nice, and there isn’t any engagement from the Oscars’ end, with Facebook commenters.

Live Streaming the Nominations

On February 15th, the Academy live streamed the Oscar Nominees Luncheon on Oscars.org and Facebook. More than 170,000 unique visitors watched some or all of the event. It’s a pretty cool idea to get people interested in the show a couple of weeks ahead of time. Even if people didn’t watch it, they may have heard about the idea and been intrigued by it.

iPhone App

The Oscars also released a free iPhone app, which offers users a chance to “make your Oscar® predictions.” The app comes with a complete nominees list, insider information, trailers, and more. Oscar pools are pretty common among people who watch the show, so it was a good job by the Academy to finally take advantage of that and develop this application. This feature also appears on the website for non iPhone users.

“You’ve never seen Oscar like this.”

That is the Oscars’ tagline for the 2010 show. The Academy wants to highlight everything they have and will done differently this year to make the show a spectacle like never before. There are two hosts, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, there are ten nominees for best picture, a decision that has caused a lot of commotion. Further, the Oscars are giving viewers a more behind-the-scenes look at the show, and trying to get viewers more involved. The tagline does a good job at getting people excited.

Overall, I think the Oscars are making a good effort to revamp their show and “get with the times.” They’ve admitted that they won’t achieve all of their goals with this year’s show. One issue I have with the Academy is that they chose not to engage the younger crowd on Twitter & Facebook. They aren’t interacting with Facebook fans and they aren’t active on Twitter. It’s one thing to make changes, but by not using powerful social media tools to make people aware of them, they’re making a pretty big mistake.

What do you think about the Oscars’ makeover? Do you think they’re doing enough with social media, or could they do more? Are you more likely to watch the Oscars because of their efforts to modernize the show?